Matt Ginella's Top 50 golf courses you can play in the U.S.: 50-31

No. 50: The East Course at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo. is a classic Donald Ross design. (Courtesy of The Broadmoor)No. 49: The Quarry golf course at Giants Ridge in northern Minnesota can play more than 7,200 yards from the back tees. (Brandon Tucker/Golf Advisor)No. 48: Tom Fazio has two designs at Barton Creek Resort in Texas, beginning with the original Foothills Course. (Courtesy of bartoncreek.com)No. 47: Bayonet at Bayonet and Blackhorse is an unsung but excellent round of golf on the Monterey Peninsula. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor )No. 46: A bird's-eye view from a helicopter of Turtle Bay's Arnold Palmer Course on Oahu. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)No. 45: In central Oregon, The Crosswater Course at Sunriver was designed by the late Bob Cupp. (Mike Bailey/Golf Advisor)No. 44: Many consider Mauna Kea Golf Course on the Big Island to be Hawaii's most famous course. (Mike Bailey/Golf Advisor)43: On the Hawaiian Island of Lanai, Manele Golf Course is one of Hawaii's most spectacular rounds. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)No. 42: The Rick Smith Signature course at Treetops Resort in northern Michigan is full of spectacular, elevated tee shots. (Courtesy of Treetops Resort)No. 41: In Myrtle Beach, S.C., True Blue is an imaginative design by the late architect Mike Strantz. (Courtesy of True Blue)No. 40: In the Quad Cities, TPC Deere Run, a current PGA Tour host, provides excellent value. (Courtesy of TPC Network)No. 39: The Classic Course at Madden's on Gull Lake in Brainerd, Minn. is a definitive "hidden gem." (Courtesy of Madden's on Gull Lake)No. 38: In the Carolina Sandhills, Tobacco Road is one of late-architect Mike Strantz's finest gems open to the public. (Courtesy of Tobacco Road G.C.)No. 37: The Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw-designed Saguaro Course at We-Ko-Pa is an exciting Arizona desert layout. (Brandon Tucker/Golf Advisor)No. 36: Luxurious CordeValle is set among vineyards beside the mountains of San Martin, Calif. (Courtesy of CordeValle Resort)No. 35: Erin Hills in Wisconsin is set to host the 2017 U.S. Open. (Paul Hundley/Golf Advisor)No. 34: Near the Village of Pinehurst, Dormie Club is a newer Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw design worth a look. (Courtesy of Dormie Club)No. 33: The Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif. was designed by Pete Dye and on the PGA Tour schedule. (Mike Bailey/Golf Advisor)No. 32: Gamble Sands, designed by David McLay Kidd, debuted in Washington state in 2014. (Courtesy of Gamble Sands)No. 31: here's nothing like playing the par-3 16th at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course with the bleachers still up. (Mike Bailey/Golf Advisor)

Travel expert Matt Ginella is counting down his Top 50 Courses You Can Play in the U.S. on Golf Channel's Morning Drive. The top 10 courses will be revealed on Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. EST.

The end. It's my favorite time of the year. It inspires reflections on lessons learned, moments worth remembering, and lists in need of tweaking.

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On the subject of My Top 50 in the U.S. That You Can Play, a new Coore and Crenshaw design in Wisconsin takes the place of a Donald Ross original in North Carolina, that's not only off the list, it's no longer going to exist.

Sand Valley's first course, which debuts at No. 24, is yet another remote, playable and scenic, sand-based routing built by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw for Mike Keiser. It's not nearly as dramatic as Cabot Cliffs, which might be as high as No. 2 on this list if it included Canada. Sand Valley doesn't have as many memorable holes as Bandon Trails (No. 8). And it doesn't have the narrative build to a climactic finish like Streamsong Red (No. 11). Which are three of the last five Coore and Crenshaw public designs in the U.S. (Dormie Club and Bandon Preserve are the other two). But as the first course of a budding destination, Sand Valley does exactly what Keiser needs it to do: It leaves people wanting to come back for more.

As for the biggest movers of courses already on the list, that goes to the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass (from No. 21 to No. 13) and Mid Pines (from No. 24 to No. 18).

The host of The PLAYERS Championship has become more playable with bigger greens, better putting surfaces and a drivable par 4.

And Mid Pines, which underwent a restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 proportions, deserves more respect and recognition.

Pinehurst No. 2 not only maintains its place in my top 3, the 2011 restoration of center-line irrigation, natural collection areas and random lies in wire grass has caused a sand storm throughout the Sandhills. Kyle Franz's restoration work at Mid Pines has made it my second favorite course in the area, ahead of Pinehurst No. 8 (No. 20), Pine Needles (No. 22), Dormie Club (No. 34) and Tobacco Road (No. 38). It's worth noting, Franz is now working on restoring Pine Needles. And Keith Foster is restoring Greenbrier's Old White (No. 26).

Meanwhile, Pinehurst No. 4 (No. 23 in 2015) is off the list because in 2017, Gil Hanse will completely renovate what was most-recently a Tom Fazio design. And yet again, Hanse promises more of a natural look to everything surrounding the playing surface.

Yes, another year has gone by, and yet, golf in America continues a trend of turning back the clock to what makes the most sense: Thoughtful, fun, fast, natural and sustainable. As for affordable, that's a relative term and this is a list of The Best, which, in every industry, comes with A Cost.

Which brings me to a two-for-one: The Loop, Tom Doak's reversible routing in Roscommon, Mich., and Mossy Oak, Gil Hanse's new course in West Point, Miss. I didn't consider these three new courses for this year's list. I only walked Mossy Oak well before it was open. And although I played The Loop in both directions multiple times, in fairness, it was preview play and conditions in June were a bit too raw to get a sense of where they'd rank on any list. However, I maintain that what Doak pulled off — 18 greens that can be played in two directions — is impressive and could inspire yet another layer of alternative forms of golf architecture. Are those greens at The Loop too small with too many severe undulations given the demand of modern green speeds? Doak knows those dice and doesn't seem to be afraid to keep rolling 'em. (See: Streamsong Blue, No. 28.)

As for Streamsong Black, another Gil Hanse design, I'm looking forward to the fall opening of what will be the third course at Mosaic's Central Florida golf getaway.

And while My Top 10 stays the same, with consistency to conditions and ongoing enhancements, such as the 14th and 17th greens, Pebble Beach has only increased its lead as my favorite public course in the country.

Matt Ginella is Golf Channel's resident travel insider. He writes for GolfChannel.com and appears weekly on "Morning Drive." Before Golf Channel, Ginella was senior travel editor for Golf Digest and Golf World from 2007-2012 and covered courses, resorts and the avid amateur golfer's annual buddies trips to over 60 destinations around the country. Ginella graduated from St. Mary's College (Calif.) in 1995 and earned a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University in 2003. Follow Matt on Twitter at @mattginellagc and on Instagram at @Matt_Ginella.